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January 15, 2001 - Strategy Magazine
Special Report

Premiums & Incentives
The giveaway stakes have escalated
Advertisers getting more creative, experts say

by Laura Pratt
page 25

Free stuff. We all love it. It's simply human nature.

Which explains why the age-old giveaway - more formally known as the "added-value offer" - remains a prominent part of many promotional programs.

"They're as desired by consumers as ever," says Hy Haberman, president of Toronto-based promotional marketing agency GeneratorIdeaWorks.

If there's a trend in this area, Haberman says, it's a recognition of the need for greater ingenuity. "The only thing that's changing is that smart marketers are trying to get a bit more creative in the kinds of [premiums] that they're giving away."

The reasons aren't hard to fathom. Promotions in general are assuming an ever-greater role in the marketing mix, as brands look for ways to build added equity in a crowded consumer marketplace. And the more promotional activity there is, the greater the challenge of standing out. Hence the need for innovation.

"Everybody's so time-starved that if you can stop a consumer in the store for half a second, and engage them in your brand, it can mean an exponential increase in sales," says Tony Chapman, president of Toronto-based Capital C Communications.

Of course, it's no easy task to come up with added-value offers that will win over today's jaded consumers.

Haberman, for one, says partnership activity has become increasingly the norm in this field. The advantage, obviously, is the opportunity to increase the lustre of one's giveaway program by leveraging the equity and offerings of another prominent brand.

Last summer, for example, GeneratorIdeaWorks assisted Pepsi-Cola Canada with its Pepsi Taste Challenge promotion. Consumers who took the taste test received a Pepsi Taste Challenge Card, which entitled them to discounts from Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Famous Players, Playdium and MusicWorld, among others.

Truly outstanding added-value offerings are still relatively rare, says Peter Osicka, senior vice-president, promotions with The Marketing Store Worldwide in Toronto.

One of the real keys to success, he argues, is coming up with a premium that your brand can own outright.

"When you're giving away a music CD or a T-shirt, anybody can produce the same thing," he says. "But if you can produce a premium which is exclusive to your brand, then it becomes a valuable asset in the overall marketing mix."

An excellent case in point, Osicka says, is the promotion that Quaker Oats in the U.S. ran last year for its Cap'n Crunch Cereal. The program featured a CD-ROM game - "Cap'n Crunch's Crunchling Adventure" - that was included in specially marked packs of the cereal.

"It's a prime example of someone who was able to take a proprietary or exclusive property and build a program around it that really enhanced the brand image," he says. "A lot of consumer packaged goods marketers execute premium offers, but in the end it's just one premium versus another. There's no differentiation in the marketplace from the consumer's point of view."

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